Trying ubuntu 16.4

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MikeB4

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#202075 15-Sep-2016 21:04

It's been a few years since I was involved with Linux and in particular Ubuntu. After close to 10 years heavy involvement with Ubuntu I walked away from it disillusioned.

I decided to give Ubuntu 16.4 a whirl on a spare laptop I have. The install as usual was a breeze and all things work. It is responsive and stable and that's about it. Ubuntu does not really seem to have moved along much in the last few years and feel and looks like an aging OS. Windows and Mac OS are way ahead.

I will do some more with it and see what happens. The reality is I cannot see it being more than an interest thing.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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#1631384 15-Sep-2016 22:54

I am both a Windows (many different versions) user at work and Ubuntu user at home and I thought it had gone the other way. Windows and other OS's are heading down the path of flat UI's and to be honest Windows 10 has taken it too far and now looks pretty (old) Linux like to me. You have to look carefully to see if applications pinned to the taskbar are actually active or just an icon the difference is so subtle and the new RDP login window is just plain ugly. I don't believe it is that Ubuntu has moved ahead that much, just that Windows is getting worse.

Ubuntu is just a interest thing for me, as you say, but in practice it is getting to the point where it is so much easier to do things in Linux now, while it is now so much more difficult to get basics in Windows working well. Adding and removing software is now pretty much a breeze in linux, while I have deleted most of Microsoft Windows 10 apps as they can't even get a simple thing like a calendar to work for NZ's timezone.

Either way they are both here to stay and it is good to be familiar with both.

ajw

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#1631395 15-Sep-2016 23:07

There are many different flavours to choose from.

https://distrowatch.com/

michaelmurfy

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#1631396 15-Sep-2016 23:08

I respectfully disagree.

Ubuntu 16.04 is really good as a Server OS (have a couple of production servers running it) as well as a Desktop OS - it is incredibly powerful for free and opensource software (Linux in general). Basically each OS has its own target market and Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora etc) all have target audiences.

Linux will never be, and never will be a "point and click" OS - you do need to use the Terminal to get the most out of it and there are plenty of tutorials out there. You can install Chrome, Virtualbox (for virtualisation) and essentially do what you want without any restrictions which is what makes Linux a very powerful tool and why a Desktop OS as a whole exists.

I personally run Debian on a laptop as my OS of choice with Gnome for a window manager and have the terminal assigned to F9 on my keyboard. There are many things you can do in Linux that you can't do (or can - with restrictions) on Windows and even MacOS making it a really good dev environment and also a good environment for hardware hacking, pen-testing (see Kali Linux), video editing + rendering (Weta run Ubuntu/Debian for their render farms), web + app hosting and the list goes on.

Personally, I would say it has its place and it is right up there (if not, ahead) of the current operating systems on the market. If you want a good Desktop Linux distro based on Ubuntu 16.04 take a look at Elementary OS.

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ajw

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#1631397 15-Sep-2016 23:11

I have been using xbuntu and kubuntu for years now and couldn't go back to Windows. Kubuntu especially has been very stable as a OS.

frankv

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#1631437 16-Sep-2016 06:54

MikeB4:

I decided to give Ubuntu 16.4 a whirl on a spare laptop I have. The install as usual was a breeze and all things work. It is responsive and stable and that's about it.

Let's turn it around and pretend you use Ubuntu 16.04 all the time and ask why you would want to go to Windows. The only thing I see is the apps and games.

MikeB4

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#1631449 16-Sep-2016 07:15

My initial comment was like, oooh new shiny thing on the shelve and that first unwrapping experience. Don't get me wrong I like Linux and open source I spent nearly two decades using it I will dive deeper into 16.4 and other new distros.

@michaelmurfy I absolutely agree with you.

As for the choice I have always thought there are too many and it's still kinda like that and with that comes fragmentation, but that's another story. Choice and variety is good and sure as hell stops boredom.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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afe66

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#1631588 16-Sep-2016 10:16

I've played with ubuntu on a dual boot w7 machine and it worked so well I think still on 12.04 on my spare machine.

Now time to install onto spare SSD on i7 w10 machine...

But unsure whether to try Mint 18 as it seemed more polished than Ubuntu 16.04 even though same under the hood.

For some silly reason (or deliberate) just a bit nervous about all this UEFI business...

A.

dazhann

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#1631591 16-Sep-2016 10:20

I've just reinstalled mint 18 on my windows desktop, after a couple of years of just using windows, and its as polished as ever. Its top of my boot list

MikeB4

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#1631628 16-Sep-2016 11:11

The UEFI stuff is easy got through but one should not have to go to such grief.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

jlittle

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#1631751 16-Sep-2016 13:30

MikeB4: Ubuntu does not really seem to have moved along much in the last few years and feel and looks like an aging OS. Windows and Mac OS are way ahead.

Be sure not to conflate OS with desktop environment. There's no choice with Windows or Mac, and if their providers decide to change it as MS did with Win 8 you have to accept what you're given. With liberty OS's like Linux you get a choice.

Vanilla Ubuntu comes with Unity, Canonical's own DE, and IMO it does not suit everyone, and not me, though (in my limited experience of both) I prefer it to Windows 8 or 10, (at least now, when it came out I hated it). It's overly influenced by the Mac, I think. If you want a much more able DE I suggest KDE. Both Gnome and KDE are emerging from not so good times, Gnome from IMO a huge dose of "we know best, do it our way" and KDE from a rewrite. If want something that just works IMO your best bet over the last 2 years was KDE 4, say Linux Mint KDE. For me, Kubuntu 16.04 runs really well.

Regards, John Little

MikeB4

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#1631754 16-Sep-2016 13:35

jlittle:
MikeB4: Ubuntu does not really seem to have moved along much in the last few years and feel and looks like an aging OS. Windows and Mac OS are way ahead.
Be sure not to conflate OS with desktop environment. There's no choice with Windows or Mac, and if their providers decide to change it as MS did with Win 8 you have to accept what you're given. With liberty OS's like Linux you get a choice. Vanilla Ubuntu comes with Unity, Canonical's own DE, and IMO it does not suit everyone, and not me, though (in my limited experience of both) I prefer it to Windows 8 or 10, (at least now, when it came out I hated it). It's overly influenced by the Mac, I think. If you want a much more able DE I suggest KDE. Both Gnome and KDE are emerging from not so good times, Gnome from IMO a huge dose of "we know best, do it our way" and KDE from a rewrite. If want something that just works IMO your best bet over the last 2 years was KDE 4, say Linux Mint KDE. For me, Kubuntu 16.04 runs really well.

Absolutely, Gnome has always been my go to DE, KDE and it's crayola look has never really appealed. Ubuntu's Unity has been quite the debate generator, I don't hate it I am neutral about it.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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darylblake

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#1657550 25-Oct-2016 16:45

Any of the (%2).04 LTS versions are good for servers.

For Desktop there are a few choices around. 16.10 is out now, not sure if its any good. I prefer the LTS versions even for a desktop even though its not the latest & greatest. The files in the the apt repos are just better. I like Centos7/Mint/Debian. But use windows/macos now days as I cant be bothered anymore looking for tools.

The only linux servers use nowdays are 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS & Centos 7, with the odd exception of debian.

No one really bothers to compile a bunch of source unless you have time to configure it exactly how you want it. So using apt is how you install 90% of your software. IF you do then you are probably a BSD fanboy.

cynnicallemon

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#1657577 25-Oct-2016 17:15

darylblake:

No one really bothers to compile a bunch of source unless you have time to configure it exactly how you want it. So using apt is how you install 90% of your software. IF you do then you are probably a BSD fanboy.

Even "BSD fanboys" don't compile much these days. FreeBSD uses the pkg command which is pretty similar to apt in Debian distro's. OpenBSD encourages people to install from packages rather than compile as packages in their repo pass the high standards they set for software. Even NetBSD has its own packages.

The only time you should compile is if you have a need to add, remove or change the compilation options from the defaults used to build the package - that applies to BSD and Linux.

darylblake

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#1657582 25-Oct-2016 17:25

The only time I end up compiling is if I change code

networkn

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#1657589 25-Oct-2016 17:35

frankv:

MikeB4:

I decided to give Ubuntu 16.4 a whirl on a spare laptop I have. The install as usual was a breeze and all things work. It is responsive and stable and that's about it.

Let's turn it around and pretend you use Ubuntu 16.04 all the time and ask why you would want to go to Windows. The only thing I see is the apps and games.

Are you having a laugh? If that's the case, then based on your logic, if you want to have limited use, use Linux, if you want to be able to have a fully functioning computer capable of anything you want, get Windows!

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